


A Tale of Two Wanderers

by CRSerenity2132



Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout 3, Fallout 4
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Other, Storytelling, long burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-13
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-05-20 02:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5988472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CRSerenity2132/pseuds/CRSerenity2132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robert Joseph MacCready is a man who has walked two wastelands in his life, and he's finding a lot of similarities between them. The same problems of radiation and water. The same Super Mutants. And the same type of women determined to moved heaven and Earth to get what they need to do. And he finds himself compelled to tell the story of his first wasteland to the next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Wanderer

A Tale of Two Wanderers

A Fallout 3/Fallout 4 Fan fiction

By CRSerenity2132

 

Chapter One – The Wanderer

 

The sound of labor was loud and obvious in the morning air above Sanctuary. The heavy sound on metal on metal would have drove the sleep of anyone still dreaming in the quiet former suburb of Boston, but the whole settlement was abuzz with activity. It was not just hammering metal, either. The machinery of the workshops there buzzed with life, with one turning on as another had just turned off in rapid succession. There was determination in the buzzing machinery.

 

And it was one that was starting to irk Robert Joseph MacCready.

 

“Hey. Victoria. You gonna be playing with that giant metal suit all morning?”

 

There is no response but more pounding and an accompaniment of orange sparks from where MacCready knew the big sets of armor were. With a huff of annoyance, MacCready moved off of the wall that he was so comfortable leaning against to move into the harsh light of the morning. His stride was fast as he crossed the rubble-filled Pre-War street to get into shade and gain the attention of the person at the power armor set-up.

 

“Vic _tor_ ia! _VIX_!”

 

The call made the machinery stop for a moment as a curious face popped around the corner. Victoria Ruiz-Hawthorne got up from her squatting position, brushing sweat and soot from her brown face. Her hair was pulled back in it's normal bun, and her normal blue jumpsuit zipped down to her waist to ward off heat. The loose covering on her torso was drenched in sweat and dirt from the working she had been doing. And even with it loose it did little to hide the short woman's muscular frame.

 

“What do you need, MacCready? I've got a lot of work to do just today, and that's not even including the nice long walk I gotta take through the Glowing Sea,” Victoria said with a huff as she placed a hand on her occupied hip holster. MacCready had observed this movement to be a neutral one before, one that she had through the relaxed grace of a fighter used to having hands there, but all of his training still made the motion uncomfortable to watch.

 

“It's barely eight o'clock in the morning and I'd bet the people at Abernathy Farm could hear the noise your making!” MacCready called back, trying not to let the discomfort show at the woman’s motion.

 

“Just eight, huh? I must be slowing down. I was able to retrofit my own armor set within an hour back in '68,” Victoria said as she patted at the big set of power armor like a trusted animal, a look of sadness gracing her face while doing so.

 

“Wait, what? I thought that 'bot we ran into said you were a lawyer,” MacCready asked, his annoyance disappearing for a moment.

 

“I was that. Before that, though, for two years, I was part of the United States Armored Calvary Division. Had me a set of T-45 armor just like this,” Victoria said with pride as she touched the armor some more. “Then I took a mine and I was out of the military. My husband, Nate? He was the one who saved me that day...”

 

The sadness in her voice sounded so very familiar to MacCready. And not just his own longing for a lost love, his wonderful Lucy. The tone of longing and sadness in Victoras voice sounded almost like someone he knew not too long ago. One that looked at a suit of armor in a similar way with longing for a loved one.

 

“Wow, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you really remind me of the Lone Wanderer,” MacCready said without thinking. This earned MacCready a look in confusion in return.

 

“Are you comparing me to a song about a man who can't stay with a single lady,” Victoria said after a moment, her arms moving to cross in front of her with annoyance starting to show. MacCready put his hands up in mock surrender to assuage the woman.

 

“No, no, not at all. Not a thing like that,” MacCready said, before realization dawned on him. “Wait a sec, you don't know who the Lone Wanderer is, do you?”

 

A shaken head confirmed this. MacCready stopped himself from shaking his head at Victoria's ignorance, but he stopped himself after a moment. This was the Commonwealth, after all, and the people there were a hell of a lot more concerned about being snatched away in the night than some kid from a vault a hundred miles away doing things that lead to the giant airship showing up in the sky the night before.

 

“I would have thought Preston would have talked to you about the history of things around here. I mean, we're not in the Capital Wasteland. There, you'd _know_ about her. I mean, it was ten years ago, but it's ten years ago to us. I guess ten years ago to you was still before the war,” MacCready said with a shrug. “So...I guess it's story time?”

 

“So long as I have time to take Curie to Goodneighbor. Can you explain this woman quick, _chico_?”

 

“You find that brain doc she wanted?”

 

“Yeah. Doctor Amari. She was the one who helped me out...out with...” The woman shudders a bit, and MacCreadys looks her over immediately to look for some kind of injury. He heard from the reporter she picked up in Diamond City a bit of what happened, about how she and the synth detective Valentine went strolling around in the brain of a dead guy. And considering said dead guy was also the person who killed Victoria's husband, that was bad. MacCready had closed the distance halfway between himself and Victoria when she held a hand up. MacCready obliged the motion and relaxed a bit while Victoria composed herself. “-okay, I'm good. But...yeah, I could use a break. And maybe a vodka or three.”

 

“I don't have any vodka on me, but I think Preston has some Nuka stashed that I may - _ahem_ \- know about,” MacCready said with a smirk, as if he hadn't already purloined two bottles of the Minuteman's drinks. And was hiding them in the mini-shelter on the east end of Sanctuary. He may be trying to be a better man for his son, but damn if he didn't have a sweet tooth.

 

“I'll meet you in your house in ten minutes. Then you'll hear about Columbia, the Lone Wanderer of the Capital Wasteland.”


	2. Down South

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MacCready starts his story, but is distracted by questioning friends and implications.

A Tale of Two Wanderers

A Fallout 3/Fallout 4 Fan fiction

By CRSerenity2132

Chapter Two – Down South

The procurement of the Nuka Cola was a bit more complicated than MacCready would have thought, due to Vix's persistent butler robot trying to bother him while he was to slip away to the little root cellar turned mini-shelter.. “Too much dust and muck” was what Codsworth had said as he was poking at the entrance to the bunker. Luckily, a bit of misdirection and pointing out a nice little mess that Dogmeat had made was enough to give MacCready time to duck in and out with his merchandise. The damn robot was too damn fussy anyways, but it at least had it's heart sensors in the right place. 

The rocket-shaped bottles clink together as MacCready walked into the house that was once Vix's. She sat on the couch, slumped against the aged material in what was once her living room and breathing deep. It was clear the short woman hadn't slept well. Perhaps some sugar, caffeine, and a story will help her relax a bit.

“Thanks, _chico_. I appreciate it,” Vix said as MacCready offered one of the bottles with a motion. She popped off the top and took a swig, ignoring the light clicking coming off of her Pip-Boy. MacCready looked at the thing with annoyance and envy. He earned his skill, won it with half a lifetime of shooting, and yet that bulky bit of plastic and circuits on her arm gave her a cheat. Good thing she preferred big guns instead of snipers like him. Otherwise that would just be cheating.

“You're giving it a look, MacCready. I thought you were here to tell me about some lonely traveler, not give my Pip-Boy the evil eye,” Vix said, the smirk clear in her voice. MacCready tore his eyes away from the computer and coughed, opening his own Nuka quickly and taking a swig. Man he loved that flavor. It was worth the rotten teeth.

“Quick question, though, before I start. What's that word mean? Cheek-o?” That earned him a confused look from Vix. 

“It's a word in Spanish. My family originally came from the country to the south of America. Moved here in the mid 2000s. My _abuelita_ -err, grandma made sure all her family knew at least some,” Vix explained before taking another sip, looking at her wrist after a moment.

“O...kay, so Spanish. Still didn't answer my question.”

“It means 'boy', MacCready. Didn't your parents teach you?”

MacCready groaned in annoyance. “Why the short crack? You do know you're shorter than everyone else here, right?”

“That wasn't-Oh good Lord, MacCready. Just...just get on with the story of this person from the Capital Wasteland. His name was Columbia?”

“Her name, actually. Columbia was a girl from a Vault, not that I could tell at first. I met her when she came wandering into Little Lamplight. You know, that little town I was mayor of when I was a kid? Well…

 

“When she came in, she was wearing the weirdest thing. I found out later it was the uniform from a group called the Regulators. It was this big leather trench coat thing, and she had on a ridiculous hat that looked like a cross between the detective gear Valentine wears and the goofy Pre-War cowboy hats. She had stumbled in from the wasteland with a ton of mud and blood and crap and yet I don't think I've ever seen a mungo...err, adult that tall. Still haven't now that I think about it, not without a glowing green complexion. And she comes stumbling in and does this thing that I hadn't seen before. She went from talking like those egg-heads you find in the old comics to acting like a kid.”

An amused eyebrow craned at MacCready.

“Hey! It was true! She went from asking about this Gecko thing that was supposedly in the vault and giving it big old egghead words to describe the thing, then talking to a bunch of the other Little Lamplighters like she was their age. It was so weird to see at the time, but...you know, looking back, I guess that may have been what I was going to be like if I was born in that damn vault.”

“So, an egghead that like to talk to kids?” Vix said as she put down her half-finished Nuka. “Seriously, MacCready, what does this have to do with me? Do I go around talking like a little kid and like some engineer? I mean, that's what Sturges does, but me?”

“Lay off, Vix, I'm not done yet. Lemme just finish the story, will ya?” MacCready was a little annoyed at the shorter woman, but she had earned his respect enough to at least get a little annoyance her way.

“Okay, okay, _Chico_. But I gotta get going soon. Gonna take Curie to Goodneighor, remember?” Vix said, almost apologetic as she grabbed her Nuka again and began to drink some more of it. “But even with you saying I'm like a kid, I still wanna hear about this woman. After all, you say she's kind of a big deal, yeah?”

MacCready nodded in confirmation. 

“I do like being thought of as a big deal. It may be why I stuck around for the Minutemen,” Vix said with a wistful smile on her face before tipping the bottle up and finishing the last of the glass. Oh, Vix left herself open for a needling there. MacCready felt his own face start to pull into a smirk before he continued.

“And I'm certain a charming Minuteman with a big hat and...rifle had nothing to do with that, right?”

There is a big, exaggerated gasp of scandal from Vix before she tossed the now emptied soda bottle at him. MacCready laughed as the bottle missed him by a lot and instead spun on the ground, pointing at Vix in accusation once it stopped turning. 

“ _Estúpido_! I'm gonna take Curie before you imply anything else! Maybe Codsworth'll rub off on you and you'll learn some manners, little boy,” Vix said as she zipped up her jumpsuit, showing the blue and yellow ensemble to MacCready as she left.

“Too late for that one! You should hear the rest of the story, then you'll know why!”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fan-fiction in a great deal of time. Any sort of constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.


End file.
